Chapter 15

Chapter 15 — "Rocky in the Lab"

TL;DR: Rocky fabricates a sealed life-support sphere out of the Eridian super-material xenonite and crosses the hex-wall to work alongside Grace inside the Hail Mary — and they target a nearby planet, Adrian, to find the Astrophage's predator.

Summary: The two species cannot share air, but Rocky solves it the way Eridians solve everything: by building. He manufactures a transparent, perfectly pressure-rated sphere of xenonite — a material that turns out to be effectively unbreakable — large enough to enclose his entire body and keep it bathed in his own ammonia atmosphere. He passes through the hex-wall, rolls his sphere down the tube, and arrives in the Hail Mary's lab. They are now in the same room for the first time. They plan together: the Tau Ceti system has a "brown" world Rocky calls Adrian, named for his mate, and Adrian's atmosphere is suspiciously rich in things Astrophage should have eaten. Whatever predator keeps Tau Ceti clean lives there. They are going to scoop a sample.

Key scenes:

• Rocky inside his transparent xenonite sphere, dimly amber-lit, rolling the sphere down the docking tube
• Rocky's first arrival in the Hail Mary's lab — a five-legged silhouette inside a glowing globe
• A planning whiteboard: a star, an Earth-like rocky planet (Adrian), and an arrow representing the sample-scoop maneuver
• Rocky and Grace side by side at the lab bench, separated only by the curve of the sphere

Characters present: Ryland Grace, Rocky

Locations / settings:

• The docking-tube interior (transit)
• The Hail Mary lab — workbenches, microscopes, sample chambers
• The Tau Ceti system in diagrams: Tau Ceti, the Hail Mary, and the planet Adrian

Visual motifs: Rocky's xenonite sphere as a glowing amber-orange ball with a small dark armored shape inside, the curve of the sphere catching cool white lab light from outside and warm orange light from inside, the lab bench with chemical glassware and a hand-drawn Adrian-approach diagram in gold marker

Emotional tone: ingenious, hopeful, partnered, mission-focused

Confidence: high — the xenonite sphere and Rocky's arrival in the lab are signature beats; "Adrian" is consistently named after Rocky's mate in summaries.